Synthesis of Rape Pollen-Fe2O3 Biohybrid Catalyst and Its Application on Photocatalytic Degradation and Antibacterial Properties
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The authors describe in their manuscript entitled “Synthesis of Rape Pollen-Fe2O3 Biohybrid Catalyst and Its Application on Photocatalytic Degradation and Antibacterial” the synthesis, characterization, photocatalytic degradation and antibacterial testing of Fe2O3/TRP material. The developed structures were characterized using several methods, and the performance of photocatalytic degradation and antibacterial was also discussed. The manuscript needs major revisions listed below before publication.
1. Does the wide diffraction peak at 22° refer to carbon phase in XRD? Why this peak disappeared in Fe2O3/C samples?
2. Please give more characterization, such as XPS, to prove the existence of Fe2O3.
3. The author described that all the pores of TRP have been occupied by Fe2O3 particles in Figure 1d, which will reduce the area between catalyst and reactant. I suggest BET should be added to show the samples’ specific surface area and pore structure.
4. In section 2.2, the band gap energy of pure Fe2O3 is 2.1eV, which is calculated by the Kubelka-Munk method. How about other samples in Figure 3?
5. ESR measurements should be provided to further identified e-, h+, ·OH and ·O2-radicals.
6. There are some literatures (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijleo.2019.164047; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cplett.2021.138524; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jscs.2021.101307) on photocatalytic and antibacterial properties of Fe2O3, your innovation should be emphasized.
Author Response
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Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Overall, the article is interesting and has valuable research work in the application of photocatalyst. The efficient biohybrid photocatalysts were successfully prepared with different weight ratio of Fe2O3 and treated rape pollen (TRP), used for degradation of Methylene Blue (MB) and Escherichia Coli (E. coli) disinfection in water under visible, and mechanism was explored during the reaction process. Nevertheless, it is necessary to do some minor changes before the publication of the paper.
1) Results part
Check the following place, e.g. ROS in line 69 should be enclosed in parentheses, check all;
“As shown in Figure 5e”in line 215; PH in line 269; OH in Scheme 1.
The reaction condition should be indicated in the Figure 4 and Figure 5 of the degradation of MB and inactivation of E. coli.
2) Materials and Methods part.
The position of 3.4 or 3.6 section should be exchanged with the section of 3.5, to make the structure clear.
3) Conclusion part
Conclusion could be expanded as it doesn’t refer to the findings about the weight ratio of Fe2O3 and treated rape pollen (TRP) of the most efficient biohybrid photocatalysts. The use of redundant words in Conclusion ( e.g. in summary) could be eliminated.
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
(1) The rape pollen-Fe2O3 biohybrid is not the final Fe2O3/C catalyst for photocatalytic performance assessment; thus, the title should be modified.
(2) The XRD peaks between 55-60 degrees are not identified (Fig. 1f), which might indicate impurity phase, especially for the 50%Fe2O3/C sample. In addition, the standard XRD pattern of the Fe2O3 should be provided in Fig. 1f.
(3) The effect of BET surface area on photocatalytic activity needs to be excluded to explain the advantages of the Fe2O3/C relative to bare Fe2O3 for photocatalysis.
(4) “Then the photogenerated electrons in conduction band of Fe2O3/C will rapidly transfer to the valance band of TPR driven by the internal electric field, which prevents the combination of electron-hole in Fe2O3/C bulk.” The electron transfer pathway lacks of experimental evidences. According to the band configuration of Fe2O3 and TRP, the photoelectrons in the CB of TRP tend to transfer to the CB of Fe2O3 in thermodynamics.
(5) According to the proposed band configuration of Fe2O3 and TRP, a question is that what the difference between the TRP and the carbon matrix in the Fe2O3/C catalyst is. Are they identical?
(6) The details of photocatalytic tests are not sufficient. What is the wavenumber of the filter to remove ultraviolet light, 400 or 420 nm? What is the distance between the light source and the reaction system? What is irradiation intensity reaching the reaction system?
Author Response
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Reviewer 4 Report
Comments to the Authors:
In this manuscript authors prepared biohybrid photocatalysts with different weight ratio of Fe2O3 and treated rape pollen (TRP) and used for degradation of Methylene Blue (MB) and Escherichia Coli (E. coli) disinfection in water under visible light. This research has value for the researchers in the related areas. However, the paper needs improvement before acceptance for publication. My detailed comments are as follow:
1. In the introduction section authors should introduced following interesting articles related to Fe2O3 , dye degradation and antibacterial applications:
a. doi.org/10.1016/j.colcom.2019.100218
b. doi.org/10.1021/acs.iecr.0c03069
2. Authors should provide a histogram of Fe2O3 particles.
3. Authors should compare the photocatalytic activity with previously published results.
4. The writing of conclusion section should be improved.
5. There are few typos and grammatical errors. Improve the quality of figure 5 (a) and (d)
6. Authors should include one or two sentences of future direction of this type of catalyst.
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
The authors have revised their manuscript accordingly. Now this manuscript can be published as it is.
